Friday, July 15, 2005

Open Mouth Insert Foot

Some of you may be familiar with this phenomenon. But I know some of you are way too smart to say the dumb things I do sometimes. Well, honestly I don't think they are dumb- they're just my reality and sometimes that reality clashes with a certain other person's reality.

Many of you will have seen some of the woodworking that Steve has done and he does a fabulous job. This work takes patience though and although I am told by many that I am a very patient person, sometimes I fall short in a certain someone's opinion.

Today, Steve took half a day off work and spent 4 1/2 hours working on 2 pieces of moulding. When I came home one of them was up and the other was drying on the back porch. Now, mind you these were redos that many people would be satisfied with I suspect. Steve's fudge factor is like 1/8" and he doesn't really like to leave things at that. He prefers a 1/16". And it's really hard for me to wrap my mind around spending 4 1/2 hours on 2 boards.

So when I came home and he showed me what he'd done, I made the mistake of saying, "Well, I'm glad you were able to work today, because if that was all you got done all weekend, I'd be disappointed."

And then I get "the look." "The look" basically tells me to go crawl back to the rock from which I slithered out of. It says...well I won't tell you what it says, but suffice it to say, I have offended the great artist Steve (sigh).

And then he said the words that struck fear into my heart, "I'm going to go on strike for a month- you just wait." As I laugh nervously and subsequently say, "Can we just pretend I didn't say that?"

And then he says, "Just for that, you're buying dinner tonight."And I say, "Drats!"

Everything has its ups and downs, it's silver lining and rusted out bottom, including renovating a house and a relationship at times. Sometimes we get testy, but today I don't think I was the testy one...

7 comments:

When I get tired (or tired of a project) I always want it to go more quickly & that's when it is easiest to put my foot in my mouth. Now I just over exaggerate things and ask for the impossible. Last night it was asking for the replacement of the upstairs bathroom this week... a cross between dreaming and frustration. I'm sure the moulding looks beautiful!

I suffer from a sever case of Foot-In-Mouth disease. I think funny thoughts, or at least I think I think funny thoughts. Others don’t always seem to find my “clever remarks” quite as cute as I do. Sometimes I say things more for my pleasure than for others, and let’s just say I don’t hit every one out of the ball park. Maybe that’s why I had so much trouble in school. I’m having a cathartic moment here.

I do the exact same thing to Aaron all of the time. He's a huge perfectionist and very, very detail oriented. Unfortunately, he's not very time-oriented. I've definitely said stuff in reference to speed and been confronted with the death stare. I'll have to remember that an immediate apology and offering to buy dinner may smooth over the situation!

My wife made some comments along the same line as yours, and I, in turn, stuck my foot in my mouth by saying "Quit acting pregnant." She didn't appreciate that, but, in my defense, she sounded like she does when she's 8 months pregnant in July and it's 95 degrees and 100% humid outside. Anyway, long story short, we just found out she really IS pregnant and we are expecting our third bundle of joy in mid-March. (Maybe an Irish baby?)Cheers!